Crypto news

The real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector continues to demonstrate explosive growth, attracting increasingly larger players. This week, two landmark events confirmed that digital securities have ceased to be a niche experiment and have become a strategic direction for industry leaders.

Grvt bets on institutional treasury bonds

The CeDeFi exchange Grvt, which combines centralized efficiency with decentralized transparency, has announced a large-scale partnership with RWA product issuer Ondo Finance. Over the next twelve months, the platform intends to grow its position in the tokenized product USDY to $100 million. This involves building a strategic reserve backed by institutional U.S. Treasury bonds.

A key feature of this initiative is the integration of yield into the base rate of the Grvt Earn product. Users making deposits will receive passive income derived from several sources: an annual percentage yield (APY) of 3.5% from USDY plus rewards for providing liquidity, including through integration with the Aave protocol. This is a classic example of how RWA instruments are becoming "building blocks" for DeFi platforms, enhancing their appeal to conservative investors.

Currently, Ondo Finance's total assets under management (AUM) stand at approximately $2.59 billion. The portfolio structure is distributed as follows:

• USDY — $2.1 billion, deployed across eight networks;
• OUSG — $500 million, available only to qualified U.S. investors.

Grvt's planned position of $100 million would account for roughly 3.8% of USDY's current AUM — a serious commitment that addresses Ondo's main challenge: distribution. Instead of directly reaching the retail market, the issuer gains access to Grvt's user base, while the exchange gains access to a highly liquid, low-risk instrument.

Coinbase establishes a foothold in the Middle East

In parallel, the American crypto exchange Coinbase has announced the opening of an international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi. The company has received a financial services permit from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). The license will allow Coinbase to offer digital securities backed by underlying equities, opening a direct path to tokenizing traditional assets outside U.S. jurisdiction.

This move is not merely geographic expansion but a strategic maneuver. The new division will operate in parallel with Coinbase's derivatives business in Dubai, thereby establishing two anchor points in the UAE. Amid the active transition of global asset managers and banks to blockchain rails for funds, bonds, and private credit, Coinbase aims to secure a key position in the infrastructure of the new financial order.

It is worth noting that Grvt, built on the ZKsync L2 solution, raised $19 million in a Series A round in September 2025, and the TGE of its GRVT token took place on July 30, 2026. This is a young but ambitious project, and its partnership with Ondo signals that even new exchanges see the future in hybrid financial products.

My view: we are witnessing the convergence of TradFi and DeFi. Tokenized treasury bonds are becoming not just an investment tool but a foundational liquidity layer for an entire class of platforms. The Grvt-Ondo partnership is a step toward creating an "internet of value," where yield is generated from the real economy rather than speculation. The only question is who will be the first to build a scalable model capable of withstanding the load of institutional capital.